ference. God doesn’t need you to bring an issue before
the world or try to make an impact. Why? Because God is
God. But even though God doesn’t need you, He wants you.
I was recently in Mexico on a service project,
building a house for a very poor Tijuana family. When
it came time for us to finish up the project, we pulled
out our paint and brushes and began to put the final
touch on the house: a nice coat of watery green. All of
a sudden, a few of the children who were to live in the

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house showed up with huge smiles on their faces and
big hearts willing to work. They wanted to paint too! So
we let them help out. Sure, it may have taken a little bit
longer and been a little bit messier, with paint sloshed
on us and on them, but that paint job was filled with
more smiles and laughter than any I’ve done before or
since. You see, we didn’t technically need their help,
but we did want it.
I’m sure we’ve all been in those kids’ shoes from time
to time: trying to “help” our parents make cookies when
we were really little (and getting flour everywhere), or
perhaps “helping” your dad or granddad fix up an old
car (and slowing down the
process). See, there are much

He wants to use us,

more qualified people around

which means we get

for jobs like that. But because

to work by His side

these adults loved us and

and have front-row
seats to see His
amazing power.

wanted us to learn, they let
us help. I believe God feels
the same way.
The truth of the matter
is that God doesn’t need us
because He is God—the most

qualified being in the universe! But the good news
is that just because God can do anything without us
doesn’t mean He wants to. God can create anything, fix
any problem, and He can do it all without us. But He

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wants to use us, which means we get to work by His
side and have front-row seats to see His amazing power.
Here’s an example. Let’s take the problem of hunger.
Feeding the hungry is an overwhelming job. Did you
know there are 925 million people who go hungry each
and every day?1 To put that in perspective, the United
States has 308 million people. So that means that the
number of people who go hungry every day is equal
to the population of our entire country times three.
And God could feed all of those people in a second.
God’s done it before. Just check out the story of Moses
and the Israelites in the Bible (Exodus 16). While they
were wandering around the desert for forty years, God
made food drop from the sky that nobody had even
seen before. The Israelites started calling it manna,
which means “what is it?” God could drop some manna
down again. Maybe even with a little hot sauce on it.
But why doesn’t He? I can’t say for sure. We do know,
though, that God wants to use human beings to solve
the world’s problems.
When God was making Adam, He said, “Let us make
mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they
may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the
sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground”
(Genesis 1:26).
He gave Adam a mission. Then He let him name all

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the animals (although I think the guy must have been
hurting for names by the time he got to the dodo and
the pig-footed bandicoot, don’t you?). And we inherited
Adam’s mission to take care of things ever since. I’m
pretty honored by that. God made people with giving in
mind—He chose us to make a difference.
Jesus said, “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose
you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that
won’t spoil” (John 15:16 msg).
This means you! And me! God has made a plan to
use you to accomplish eternal, life-giving, miraculous
things! Now, that’s pretty exciting—the most exciting
thing that will ever happen to us in our whole lives!
Sure, God was perfectly capable of naming all the
animals by Himself. He didn’t need Adam or a team of
landscapers to make the plants grow in the garden of
Eden either. In the same way, God could solve the world’s
biggest problems in an instant, wiping out suffering and
diseases as terrible as cancer or AIDS. I don’t know why
He doesn’t. That’s one of those big mysteries we’ll have
to ask Him about when we get to heaven. One thing I can
tell you for sure is that we don’t know all the answers
for why God sometimes chooses not to intervene directly.
But the thing we can know is that when we live to give,
we get to partner with a God whose love has no end, and
we get to play a part in His incredible plan—a plan that
will last for eternity.

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We Have a Part to Play
There are so many examples in the Bible of God using
regular people—even kids—to help Him make amazing
things happen. He could have done these things by
Himself, of course, but He picked people He loved to help
bring life to the world. Later, we’ll talk about how you
are just such a person. But first let’s look at John 6 for
an example of how a partnership with God works. It’s
the story of the feeding of the five thousand. This is
one of the most amazing miracles in Jesus’ lifetime. In
fact, it is the only miracle, other than the resurrection,
that is written about in all four gospels.2 That means it
is pretty important. And in this miracle, Jesus uses the
direct help of someone else—a kid a lot like you and me.
Let me paint the picture for you.
Jesus and His disciples hop into a boat and sail to the
other side of the Sea of Galilee. Along the shore, people
see the boat and follow it all the way to the other side of
the sea! When Jesus and the disciples reach the shore,
they are greeted by an ever-growing crowd estimated at
five thousand men. This means there were probably many
more than five thousand people overall, counting the
women and children (Matthew says there were “about
five thousand men, besides women and children” [14:21]).
Jesus begins to heal their sick and teach them. Why?
Mark 6:34 gives us the answer: “When Jesus landed and

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saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because
they were like sheep without a shepherd.”3
That compassion leads Him to continue teaching until
very late in the day, sharing wisdom and hope. But then
the disciples run into a problem. All the people who have
been listening to Jesus are hungry and without food, and
they are too far from home to go get any kind of quick
meal. I’m pretty sure takeout wasn’t around back then.
Jesus’ compassion on the crowd shows itself again;
He tells His disciples to go get them something to eat.
Imagine! What if someone asked you to rustle up a nice
dinner for, oh, ten thousand people, just on the fly?
The disciples are understandably stressed—they know
they can’t possibly afford to feed all these people. It
would take the modern-day equivalent of $8,000, or
half a year’s wages for them.4 But Andrew looks around
and manages to find a little boy who has what seems
to be the only ounce of food around. It is a meager
meal made up of only five small barley loaves and two
fish—barely enough to feed the boy, let alone the huge
crowd. We’re not talking about a big meal by any stretch
of the imagination.
But it would be enough—in fact, more than enough.
Jesus uses this little boy’s meal to feed the whole crowd.
The Bible says Jesus gives thanks for the small lunch,
the disciples divide it up, and everyone has their fill
of food. Then—and this shows how great this miracle

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was—the disciples actually pick up twelve basketfuls of
leftovers!
Jesus didn’t need that boy. Jesus didn’t need his
lunch. He could have fed everyone without even missing
a beat in His teaching. Jesus could have turned rocks
into bread if He wanted to—but instead, He chose to use
that boy. The Bible doesn’t give us many details about
this kid or why Jesus chose to use him, but I can’t help
but wonder if He did it to show us what happens when
we offer our gifts to Him.

%
I was nine years old, sitting on a couch in my living
room with my family. The TV was on and we were all
glued to it, but it wasn’t a typical movie or cartoon show
keeping our attention. On the screen was another nineyear-old—a little girl named Maggie. She lived almost ten
thousand miles away in Zambia, and her life was about as
different from mine as it could get. You see, Maggie was
what’s known as an AIDS orphan. She had been born to
parents who both died of this horrible disease, and she
was suffering because of it. Instead of having a nice
house like mine, she lived under an old tarp with her
great-grandmother. She huddled there without protection from the rain, without enough food to eat, enough
clothes to wear, or a school to go to. When she stared

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into the camera, her eyes looked empty, as if she were
so tired that she couldn’t go on much longer. This was so
scary to me. Maggie didn’t ask for that life or deserve it,
but there she was, staring with empty eyes under that
tarp. And there I was, watching TV on a nice couch in
our family room in Arizona.
Then, in the next moment, Maggie’s image faded from
the screen, and it seemed as though I was transported
back to my normal cares and concerns. But not quite.
That’s when God changed things for me. All of a sudden,
everything around me looked different. Maggie’s story
was really real—really happening on the other side of
the world, and all the while I was going about my life
in ease and comfort. It could have been me, I thought.
I had to do something. And that’s how it all started.
God used that moment to break my heart and start a
journey that led to my first book, Take Your Best Shot.
He used my broken heart by giving it a dream to help
Maggie and others like her in a way that would let me
do what I liked to do most—shoot free throws on the
basketball court. He used that dream to start a crazy
journey that would eventually lead to the creation of
an organization called Hoops of Hope, which has helped
people all over the world raise more than $2.5 million
to support His kids in Africa. I don’t know how He did
it. All I know is that He made a miracle happen—and
He still is! Over the past eight years, more than forty

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thousand people have joined us in raising money for
AIDS orphans. God continues to work and do wonders
through Hoops of Hope.
Why did Jesus use the little boy with bread and fish
to feed thousands of hungry people? Why did God use
a nine-year-old kid in Arizona to help AIDS orphans?
Because He wanted to. And God wants to use you to make
a difference too!
“Really?” you might say. “AIDS and hunger and things
like that are huge problems. These are a big deal, and
I’m just me. How could a kid like me even make a dent
in such big problems?” Your question would be understandable. But don’t let the fact that God wants to use
you intimidate or overwhelm you. Remember Philippians
4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (nkjv).
It’s not you doing the heavy lifting—it’s Christ, and
He’s got endless backup. Still feel a little puny and
unsure? Look how God is described in Isaiah 40:29: “He
gives strength to the weary and increases the power
of the weak.”
Afraid you might run out of steam? Paul wrote in
Philippians, “There has never been the slightest doubt
in my mind that the God who started this great work in
you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish
on the very day Christ Jesus appears” (1:6 msg).
God loves seeing us live our lives to the fullest by

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giving of ourselves in the service of others. Sure, He
could do it all on His own, but because He loves us, He
wants to use us! He wants us to live to give.

A Gift That Keeps On Giving
What exactly does it mean to live to give? I think it starts
with knowing the reason God put you on this earth.
God has something for you to do, just as He had a plan
for Adam and for the boy with the bread and fish. We
shouldn’t wait to use these gifts God has given us. The
apostle Peter wrote, “Each of you should use whatever gift
you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards
of God’s grace” (1 Peter 4:10, emphasis added).
That’s right—you have received a gift. And it’s a gift
that keeps on giving, but only if you use it. Only if you
give it back to Him.
When we live to give, letting God use whatever we’ve
got, we join Him in an awesome adventure. We start
working hand in hand with Him to bring about amazing,
transforming, mind-blowing things in our lives and the
lives of others. But before we live this adventure, we
need to find out what God wants us to give.
For me, it was shooting hoops to raise money. He
wanted me to give my time and my favorite hobby. For
the boy in the multitude of five thousand, it was his
lunch. For you . . . well, this book is meant to help you

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discover what that is. But there is one common theme
throughout all of our stories: we all need to live to give
because we were made for it. Nothing beats living this
way! Nothing we could eat, drink, buy, play, watch, or
win in life can compare to the feeling of giving ourselves
away, using “whatever gift we have received to serve
others as faithful stewards of God’s grace.”

What Are You Living For?
Before we go on and discover how we were meant to live
to give, I would encourage you to answer this question:
What are you living for?
What gets you going in the morning? What is your
top priority? What is the most important thing in your
life? Don’t like your answer right now? I didn’t either at
first. This world is a distracting place. There’s so much
to entertain us, so much stuff to consume or collect,
so many people to compare ourselves to. It can be tough
to keep our heads clear and our hearts focused on God.
Sometimes it’s tough even to know what’s in our heads
and hearts at all. But by the end of this book, you will
be able to answer two questions: What have I been living for? And what was I made to be living for?
Believe me, the answer to the second question is
more exciting, fulfilling, and satisfying than anything
we can get out of a box or see on TV. When we’re used

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by God, we never know just how crazy things will get.
I never thought Hoops of Hope would lead to me visiting
Africa or meeting some of the most amazing, strongest
people on the face of the earth. But even without those
experiences, it’s enough for me to know that when I live
to give to God and others, He uses it for His glory. Plus,
as the Bible puts it, “One who is faithful in a very little
is also faithful in much” (Luke 16:10 esv). That means
that the adventure never stops. God will continue to
teach and help us grow so that we’re able to live and
give even more: another gift that keeps on giving.
So how do we get started on this journey? What is it
that you were meant to give? Read on, and let’s find out!

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stuDY Questions
1. What are your top five priorities in
life right now, in order? According to
the things on that list, what do you
seem to be living for?
2. Have you ever felt as though someone
didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need your help but wanted it
anyway? Give a specific example. How
did getting the opportunity to help in
that situation make you feel?
3. If you were to tweet about Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
awesomeness, what would you tweet?
4. What does it mean to you to know that
God wants to use you?
5. Give an example of a tangible gift that
keeps on giving. Do you believe you have
a gift that keeps giving?

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Hungry

H

unger can make us do crazy things. Do you find
yourself turning into a different person when you

are hungry? I tend to go on a snacking rampage and
raid the pantry. Hunger can also turn all of us into
food-seeking missiles. You might rummage through your
kitchen with laser focus, throwing together a bizarre
snack of Fruity Pebbles and eggnog. You may stop at the
McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s you promised you would never eat at after
you saw that documentary on fast food. In the face of
the three-oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock munchies, that squished, half-eaten
candy bar collecting dust in the pocket of your backpack
starts to look pretty good.

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Yes, we all do things we would never do in our right
minds just because of simple hunger. We still have it
pretty easy, though. In the face of natural disasters or
famine, normal, honest people find themselves suddenly
willing to steal because of hunger, even if they may
never have done that otherwise. Angry, hungry mobs
have toppled governments all throughout history, and
they still do.
Hunger can drive us in one of two ways: toward good
or toward bad. On the good side, we can use our hunger—
physical, mental, or spiritual—to fuel us to do better in
the world or go to lengths we would never attempt if we
were full and comfortable. For example, the farmers in
Twachiyanda, Zambia, are some of the hardest-working
people I have ever seen. They work fields of dry, unfertile
soil year-round to grow corn. Their days start at sunrise
and end way past sunset, and they endure backbreaking
labor. It takes a lot of genius and ingenuity to get water
into that ground and coax plants to come up out of the
near-desert, but they do it because hunger is a powerful motivation. Most of these farmers are subsistence
farmers; this means they only grow enough to feed their
families. Hunger—survival—is the reason they work so
hard. It fuels them to work harder than I would have
thought humanly possible. In the same way, this kind
of focused passion can move us to action.
Think about it. You could be hungry for that baseball

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championship; you feel the need to push yourself further
and further in practice, stretching your abilities so you
can take home the trophy. You can be hungry for good
grades, so you keep studying long after you’re tired and
you want to quit. You can be hungry for fame, money,
success, beauty, and all sorts of worldly things. But you
can also be hungry for God’s will to be done—hungry
to do good. When you look at the needs around you (or
even within you), your spiritual stomach might start
to growl, helping you focus on the God who feeds us
in every way imaginable (Psalm 146:7). That’s the good
kind of hunger!

Soggy Lunch versus Jesus-Style Feast
What about the story of the feeding of five thousand?
Don’t you think hunger played a huge role there? After
all, those people had followed Jesus around for 19.3
miles; it was time for a meal, to say the least. This
great moving force motivated Andrew to find the boy
with the lunch. It moved the people to begin to stand up
because they were so hungry (John 6:10). Hunger made
the miracle necessary. If they weren’t hungry . . . no
need for a miracle.
Hunger must have played a big role on the road too. I
have often wondered how many people might have been
present if it hadn’t been necessary to walk all the way

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to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Might there have
been six thousand people at the beginning? Maybe ten
thousand? How many started and turned around?
If stomachs work today the way they did back then,
I am sure this was the case. I don’t know about you, but
even thinking about a 19.3-mile walk makes me hungry—
let alone doing it! Picture yourself, having not eaten
anything all day, walking around this giant sea to hear
Jesus. You realize there is a great fish taco shack right
over there off the main road. Do you break off from the
group and stop? Do you turn around or keep going? I bet
if there had been little Taco Bell carts along that road,
they would have made a lot of money that day.
Personally, I am amazed by those thousands of people
who made it all the way. They let their need to see
Jesus outweigh their physical comfort. I am amazed by
them because I don’t know if I could have done it if I
had been in their shoes. Their faith was strong, but so
was the spiritual hunger that drove them to continue.

Worth the Wait
Let’s talk some more about my favorite foods. Really—this
never gets old for me. This time I want to turn your
attention to the marvelous, cheesy, crusty miracle of the
creation we call pizza. Like most red-blooded American
kids, I love the stuff. A lot of times a little microwave

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pizza will satisfy the craving and keep me going. Sure,
the crust is a bit floppy and wet in the middle and the
cheese may taste weird. But it’s food of the pizza-flavored
variety, so I don’t complain. But then . . . then there is
real, live Chicago-style pizza. The kind in the deep dish,
made by a real Chicagoan.
It is a pizza masterpiece: crusty on the outside, chewy
on the inside, with bubbly cheese and toppings cooked to
perfection. The thing is, it can take forty-five minutes
to bake. Forty-five minutes! I could pass out in forty-five
minutes! But is it worth the wait? No question about it:
yes. Putting microwaved up against restaurant-baked,
Chicago-style pizza would be like putting a stick figure
up against the Sistine Chapel. Like many good things,
it’s worth the wait.
As you may have noticed or will notice, when you
begin making a difference, you’ll want to see results
right away. When we don’t see those results, it can be
hard for us to want to continue. Many times we might
think that what we are doing just doesn’t work, or that
we are doing it wrong. This might not be the case. Keep
following that rumble in your tummy.
If there were people who quit that day by the Sea
of Galilee, they missed out on what I consider the most
amazing miracle in the Bible. They may have missed out
because they let their hunger drive them toward a quick
fix rather than a real meal. They may have missed out

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because they didn’t know how much farther it was going
to be. Sometimes waiting can be a hard thing to do.
My mom and I grow a garden every year. The first
time we did it, we actually built the garden bed out of
wood ourselves. We set the frame in the perfect spot
and dumped soil into it. Then we filled it full of plants
and vegetables just waiting to produce some amazing,
fresh, tasty, garden-grown food. Our planters were
bursting with tomatoes, many kinds of peppers, squash,
strawberries, chives, and parsley. Even though we had
bought the plants already partially grown so they would
produce quickly, it wasn’t until a few months later
that we actually started to see some results. Those few
months felt like forever. During that time we watered
the garden daily, plucked out the weeds, built a small
fence to keep birds out, and even rescued birds that had
gotten caught in that fence. But only after time could
we enjoy the fruit of our labor; the world’s best salad
was even better because of the work we’d put into it.
Isn’t making a difference a little like Chicago-style
pizza or our garden? Many times we think we can just
start with an idea and the next day a school will be built
in Africa. I remember that after I was given the idea for
Hoops of Hope, I wanted to go shoot my baskets the next
day. But I couldn’t. I had to wait and water my garden.
You see, if I had shot baskets the next day, I wouldn’t
have had time to get the word out or raise any money.

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If I hadn’t raised any money, I wouldn’t have seen any
results. Waiting and watering take time, but they are
crucial. Making a difference in the world is a marathon,
not a sprint. We sometimes have to realize that all great
things take time. The longer you continue, the more of
an impact you will have.

Focus Your Hunger
Don’t let your craving for results sideline or confuse you.
Sure, it would be easier to leave the road or look for a
shortcut, but it’s worth it to keep pounding the pavement
(or the desert, as the case may be). Though hunger could
lead you to leave the path, it could lead you to stay too.
The faith of those five thousand–plus people following Jesus was really amazing.

They stayed because

They waited it out. Something
drove them to see what was

their hearts were

at the end of the road. Maybe

hungry.

they needed to be healed,
maybe they needed hope, or
maybe they knew they might

see something incredible happen. They stayed because
their hearts were hungry.
Do we stay for that reason? It is much easier for
us to leave the road in search of a quick fix. But that
would be like giving up a secret weapon. There’s a trick

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to turning a lack of results into fuel for your mission.
How? When you start to get frustrated because you’re not
seeing things happen, weed and water. Plan and pray.
Strategize and ask for support. And continue to dream.
Keep your mind on those veggies. Or that deep-dish
pizza. Or that school in Africa. Wait if you have to. And
always keep your prayer on. The stalling may just mean
that your results will be bigger than you expected. Start
to realize that a miracle might be just around the corner. If you give up, you might miss the feeding of the
multitudes with your lunch. Remember that food-seeking
missile you become when you haven’t eaten all day? It’s
powerful. It’s focused. And it can be used for a mission.

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stuDY Questions
1. How can you become a food-seeking
missile for Christ? In what way does
your hunger lead you toward Him?
2. Do you detect a rumbling in your
spiritual stomach? What is it for?
3. What are some of the weirdest things
youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve eaten because you were starving?
What are some things you might
substitute for real results?
4. How can you overcome the desire to want
to dive into something right away? What
are some ways to keep yourself busy
while waiting?
5. What do you see as the benefit of
running a marathon and not a sprint?
How is your journey like one of these
two things?

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Give it

i

f I had the choice to be present for one of Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; miracles,
I would choose the miracle of the loaves and fish. I

guess you could tell that by now! We have envisioned it
many times throughout this book and explored the ways
it can teach you about your special gifts. I hope that the
picture I have painted of what happened on that day is
as clear as possible for you. The boy has walked along the
road with fear, deserters, traders, and sandwich squashers, all to make it to the final placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the chance to give
his lunch. A 19.3-mile journey along a bumpy road has
reached its destination. It feels good to finally be here!
The chance to give it all has arrived.

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Jesus stands in front of the massive crowd. The
boy can see Him up there teaching. Then it begins;
the people begin to stand and grumble because of hunger. A disciple finds the boy and asks him if he has a
lunch to share. Does he ever! He gives away the lunch
he so carefully protected along the road. Jesus takes
those two fish and five small barley loaves, prays to
God, and then the disciples start handing them out.
Every last one of the people are fed—by the young boy’s
lunch. Incredible!
But let’s rewind just a little bit. What two things
were necessary for this whole thing to happen? What
two thoughts had to go through the boy’s head before
he handed over his lunch? Right at the moment of
truth, when the disciples came around asking for food,
the kid could have waffled around and avoided them,
missing his chance. Or he could have stuffed a few
loaves in his mouth for himself before handing the
rest over. But instead he had two amazing impulses:
give it now and give it all. How freeing it must have
been to watch what happened when he did just that!

Give It Now
Sometimes when it comes right down to the defining
moment, we begin to ask ourselves, Why can’t I just do
something later? I’m way too busy right now. Why can’t

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I take care of a few things and then give my gifts in a
few minutes? Or tomorrow? Or next week?
So why can’t we? The truth is, we can wait until
later. But chances are we won’t follow through. People
tend to put off “doing something with their life” because,
well, “I’m in school right now.” Or “I’m way too focused
on all my afterschool activities.” Or some other thing.
If we think about it, there is never going to be a time
when we aren’t busy doing something. We’re in school
right now, then we’re busy with college, then we’re busy
with a job, and then, well, we have a family. The list
goes on. We are always going to be busy and feel like we
don’t have time to do something bigger than ourselves.
So do it now! Nowhere does God say, “You need to have
a degree to make a difference.” Not once.
I think every one of us has met an adult who has
said, “I wish I knew what I know now when I was your
age.” What they are trying to say is that they didn’t know
they could do something then. And now, because of that
lack of empowerment, the bar is set a lot lower for our
generation. It is odd to me how we are not expected to do
good things as teenagers. It seems to blow us away when
we hear about a kid making a difference. Think about
young people like Anne Frank—or even Alexander the Great
or Joan of Arc or David. Seems unbelievable what they
did as young people, right? But why all the excitement?
Why do these kinds of things rarely happen for us?

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The bar is set so low that the best people can expect
of us is to not do drugs, to get good grades, to not drink, to
not have sex before marriage . . . and the list ends about
there. Really? Our generation can do so much more. We
were meant to do so much more. When we’re older, we
can be the ones who say, “I’m glad I knew what I now
know when I was younger.” And we can start today. We
can turn the tide on this belief of waiting until we’re
older to make a mark on the world for Christ.
So when you get to the point on the road where you
ask yourself, Why can’t I put this off a little? try to think
of a really good reason to use your lunch today. People
need our help now, and we can help them. Our generation
is taking a step up each year. It is our time to shine. We
can turn the tide on the problems of this world. But not
just someday. Not in a little while. We can turn the tide
on those problems now. In Christ, we have the power to
do it. So to our generation I say, let’s not let an issue of
being too busy hold us back; let’s make a difference today.

Give It All
This boy was all in. He gave everything he had to Jesus,
and it was hard-core. There was no sneaking, no wimping
out, and no holding back. That’s why I’m so impressed
with him. As far as we know, he didn’t keep anything
for himself. He wasn’t suspicious that these twelve guys

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would swipe his lunch and leave him hungry. I mean, he
had carried the thing for so far, wouldn’t you think he
deserved to have a little bit of it on his own? He totally
could have taken a few bites first. But the Bible doesn’t
talk about a half-eaten fish or a loaf with a mouth-shaped
chunk missing from it. It’s amazing to think that this
boy didn’t want to eat a little bit of it. I honestly would
have. But he clearly had faith—or was so amazed by the
fact that Jesus was going to use his lunch—that he just
gave everything he had. What a concept.
For us, the same exact thing applies; it takes faith.
Not a little bit of faith but a ton of it. It’s faith that God
gives us Himself.
Giving it all can be hard at times. It isn’t exactly the
easiest thing to want to give everything you have—but
we have to. What happens if someone goes out and plays
in the World Cup at 50 percent? He will be pulled from
the game in a heartbeat. The same is true for us. We
aren’t going to be pulled from the game, of course, but
if we truly want to have an impact, if we truly want to
change the world for Christ, it’s important to open up
our hands and give our gifts and talents to God. When
Christ died for you and me on the cross, He gave His all.
When you are ready to make a difference, give it
everything you’ve got. Just give it. The results are so
much more powerful when we’re totally invested in
what we are doing. It’s this commitment, not necessarily

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talent or natural ability or other advantages, that really
makes an impact. So when you give it, put all your power
behind it and just see what God does.

Enough
So Jesus took the lunch, and it was enough to “feed
everyone.” It was Him! He did it! There was no reason to
look at that little snack and think it would be enough.
That’s what the miracle was all about. The concept of
“enough” can be a doubt that can threaten us at the very
crucial hour. Right when we are about to make a difference, we might not move because of this doubt. Imagine a
double-take. We look at the problem we’re trying to solve
and then we look back at ourselves and then we look at
the problem again. Not much by comparison, is it? We
realize that we are looking straight up at a hundred-foot
wall that, from a distance, had seemed small enough for
us to jump over. All of a sudden we realize how big the
problem is compared to how small we are.
I have felt this at a few different points with Hoops
of Hope. Hoops of Hope set out to help those affected by
HIV/AIDS. But the problem is that there are more than
15 million children orphaned because of this disease.
To put that picture into perspective, if those 15 million
kids were to link hands and stretch in a single line,
they would go from New York to Los Angeles and back

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again five and a half times! That problem has turned into
that hundred-foot wall, daring us to even try to knock
it down. And all we have in our hand is a chisel. Or at
least that is what it feels like.
But that chisel can do things to that wall that you
wouldn’t believe. That chisel can slowly but surely bring
that wall down to size. It can bring it down to our level.
It sounds crazy, because a chisel has never really brought
down a wall—but with the help of God it can.
Sometimes the problem you want to solve can seem
like a huge thing, made of stone, but if you are persistent enough to make a dent, you are having an impact.
We don’t have to tear the whole wall down ourselves.
We can do our part by chiseling at the wall. It’s more
about doing each of our parts than bringing down the
wall by ourselves.
Think about the story of Jericho. Why did that wall
come down in Joshua 6? Joshua 6:20 says, “When the
trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound
of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the
wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and
they took the city.” It wasn’t one guy shouting; it was
all of them shouting.
The same thing is true with the wall of Berlin. The
world was shouting against injustices in Germany, and
Ronald Reagan said something too. They are words etched
into our minds, spoken by one of my favorite leaders.

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He said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” There is
no longer a wall dividing Germany. The symbol of communism was torn down in favor of the freedom our
country holds so dear. The wall did not come down right
after his speech. The wall came down more than two
years later. But the wall came down. And freedom rings.
Also take comfort in the fact that you’re not going
up against the wall by yourself. Imagine that hundredfoot wall with our entire generation chiseling at it. It
will come down pretty quickly. If each of us does a little
part, we can solve the major problems facing our world.
If America alone didn’t spend any money on ice cream
this year, we could solve the problem of world hunger and
many other diseases (including America’s growing obesity
problem!). Want a simple way to chisel? Every time you
would normally go out for ice cream, put that money in
a jar, and at the end of the year, donate it. Even a few
bucks can make a difference to those desperately in need.
There’s a great story I like to tell about the difference a little bit can make. It’s the story of the boy and
the starfish.
Early one morning a boy was walking along a beach
when he came upon thousands of starfish washed up on
the shore. He felt compassion for these starfish, so one
by one, he bent down, picked up a starfish, and threw
it back into the sea. He did it as fast as he could, but
the beach was still covered with starfish.

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Soon an older man came jogging by, and he asked
the boy, “What are you doing?” The boy said, “I’m trying to save these starfish.” The man said, “You can’t
possibly make a difference for all these starfish! There
are thousands of them on this beach.” Then the little
boy bent down, picked one up, and threw it into the sea.
He looked the man in the eye, held up his small finger,
and said, “I made a difference for that one.”
Whether you are making a difference for thousands,
just chiseling, or throwing starfish one by one, your
actions make a difference. You are making an impact
on the wall. Eventually, that wall will be torn down
because you and people like you cared and decided to do
something. Even if you never see it come down yourself,
you’ve done your part—and you will always have the
power to make a difference for one. Never forget that.
Plus, God will never leave us or forsake us. He won’t
leave us in front of that wall with our chisels, nor will
He leave us in the corner of the lunchroom.
As you are walking up to the crowd with those spiritual gifts in hand, remember the things we talked about
in this chapter. Give your all, give it now, and know it’s
enough. Instead of waiting around for someone else to
take a stand, just do it. Do it and watch as thousands of
others join you with their chisels along the wall. You
can be the start of something big, if you are ready to
give your lunch.

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stuDY Questions
1. What would “giving it all” look like to
you?
2. If you could do anything for God,
regardless of how hard it is or what it
would take, what would that be?
3. Have you ever had the feeling of giving
your all to something and “leaving it
all on the field”? Tell about that time
and how it made you feel.
4. Is there anything keeping you from
“giving it now”?
5. What huge wall are you looking at? How
can you chisel today?